One of the country’s leading obstetricians has said he has seen no evidence that abortion can help a suicidal pregnant woman and that creates a moral dilemma for doctors.

Speaking on Newstalk this morning, the Master of the Rotunda, Dr Sam Coulter Smith, said: “We as doctors are required to practice evidence based intervention, evidence based medicine.

“Currently I haven’t seen evidence that termination of pregnancy is an appropriate treatment for someone who is suicidal, either suicidal ideation or suicidal intent so asking obstetricians to get involved in termination of pregnancy when there is little evidence to show that it is an appropriate intervention creates a moral and ethical dilemma for doctors.”  

Echoing concerns raised yesterday by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin about the risks of late-term abortions, he said the lack of time limits in the legislation meant that obstetricians could be asked to intervene in situations “where the pregnancy is either viable or approaching a viability”.  

He said: “[T]hat could create a situation where we’re creating a very premature baby, a baby that could die due to complications of prematurity or may survive, either with cerebral palsy or with significant developmental issues and that is something which has been brought on, has been created, and the question is who is responsible then for that outcome.”

Meanwhile Labour TDs have claimed that the Government’s abortion Bill will not lead to late term abortions, response to fears raised by Archbishop Martin yesterday.

Dr Martin, in a letter in yesterday’s Irish Times, expressed particularly anxiety that the the Government’s proposal would give the unborn child whose mother was deemed to be suicidal “less protection than is guaranteed in liberal abortion laws in other countries”.

His comments were welcomed in the Seanad yesterday by Fine Gael Senator Paul Coghlan, who said his remarks were “an extremely important and constructive contribution’’ to the debate, the Irish Times reports.  

Mr Coghlan said it was “unthinkable and unconscionable’’ that an unborn baby, capable of life outside the womb, could lose its constitutional right and be killed.  

“That is an appalling prospect if it were true, and I sincerely hope it is not,’’ he added. “That is a right that deserves to be defended and vindicated.’’

Pro-life Fine Gael backbenchers have sought a time limit stating how late into a pregnancy an abortion can be performed in cases where the woman is suicidal.

However, a source in the Labour party claimed that the bill only entitled doctors to “terminate the pregnancy”. The source claimed that the bill didn’t entitle doctors “to destroy the foetus” in the circumstances envisaged by Dr Martin

Taoiseach Enda Kenny also claimed that the new law would ensure everything “possible and practicable” was done to save the life of the unborn child in cases where a woman was suicidal.

Dr Martin had said he was concerned about the protection of “perfectly healthy” unborn children at a stage of their development where there was the “clear presumption that they are viable outside the womb”.